Why Lee Zeldin Will Win In New YorkDaily Wire, Oct 19, 2022
New York Republicans are not by nature an optimistic people. This makes sense given the last time anyone with an ‘R’ after their name won a statewide election was two decades ago.
Just a month or two ago, the politicians, pundits, flacks, and pollsters here were all saying the same thing about this year’s race for Governor: Incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul was going to win and Republican challenger Lee Zeldin had no chance. This was not so much based on polls, though they looked bad for Zeldin, but also on raw registration numbers dominated by Democrats. But things have changed. Now most of those same folks are saying, at least behind the scenes, not just that Zeldin can win, but that he will.
As a mid-October chill graced the air in Union Square in Manhattan a decent sized group of sign wielding Zeldin supporters milled around the gazebo shaped subway entrance. In a few minutes the candidate would be there, before the cameras with his running mate, former police officer Allison Esposito and there was but one subject on the agenda: Crime. Murders on the subway, a father killed in a hotel lobby during visiting week at Marist College, even a shooting just 20 feet from Zeldin’s own house, where his children were.
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He doesn’t have the aggressive, sometimes annoyed attitude of a Ron DeSantis, or the aw shucks, fleece-vested warmth of Glenn Youngkin. He is something different, and in a sense something very New York. He’s not particularly ideological, he just wants to get things done.
The race to defeat Hochul for the Governor’s office first entered the national news cycle back in July when Zeldin was attacked on the campaign trail by a drunken man with a small blade. It came at a point when Democrats were ramping up their fears of Republican-inspired political violence, but those same Democrats seemed to think nothing of a sitting congressman and gubernatorial candidate being literally assaulted on the stump.
It was the crack in the door that the GOP needed, and now in October, Zeldin has shrunk a 20-point lead down to 4 in some polls.
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